Magic mushrooms can effectively 'reboot' the brain in depressed people

Magic mushrooms can effectively 'reboot' the brain in depressed people, a new study has confirmed.

 The study conducted by the Imperial College London gave 19 depression patients two doses (10 mg and 25 mg) of the psychedelic ingredient psilocybin which is naturally found in magic mushrooms.

The study found out that:

 1. The amygdala, a part of the brain which involves emotional responses such as stress and fear became less active. The blood flow to the amygdala significantly got reduced.

2. The network that collaborates with different part of the brain also got stable after taking magic mushrooms.


 Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at Imperial said: “We have shown for the first time clear changes in brain activity in depressed people treated with psilocybin after failing to respond to conventional treatments.

“Several of our patients described feeling ‘reset’ after the treatment and often used computer analogies. For example, one said he felt like his brain had been ‘defragged’ like a computer hard drive, and another said he felt ‘rebooted’.

“Psilocybin may be giving these individuals the temporary ‘kick start’ they need to break out of their depressive states and these imaging results do tentatively support a ‘reset’ analogy. Similar brain effects to these have been seen with electroconvulsive therapy.”

 The researchers stressed that it is a small study and expressed concerns that it would be dangerous for depression pateints to self medicate.

Prof Mitul Mehta, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said: "What is impressive about these preliminary findings is that brain changes occurred in the networks we know are involved in depression, after just a single dose of psilocybin. "This provides a clear rationale to now look at the longer-term mechanisms in controlled studies."

References:  https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/13/magic-mushrooms-reboot-brain-in-depressed-people-study